End of Semester Speech

        This year I was pleasantly surprised to discover that there is a way of learning history without it giving me the urge to fall asleep.  In the past I have always dreaded history class because it usually involved lots of note taking and hours of memorizing facts. This year has changed all of that because I have begun to see history in a different light due to the way our class is set up. The class is presented with the opportunity to form our own opinions about topics, before we actually begin to learn the material. Then we are able to apply these opinions to the material, in order to emulate how we would have actually reacted to the situation if we had been living during the time which we are studying. This method has enabled me to understand the situations of Americans in the past because I am able to sympathize with them through our activities in class.

I was unpleasantly surprised to learn that luck plays a larger role in success than I would like to think. This is not to say that I have changed my opinion that hard work and skill play a huge role in success, I have just been enlightened in the patterns of the past. For example, the Rockefeller family. John Davison Rockefeller Senior was not born into his wealth, he worked hard to make something of himself, but he owes the extent of his success to timing and luck. If he had been born in any other time period, when the oil industry wasn't booming, he would not have the success story which he has today.

Ten years from now, I am likely to remember that slaves actually came to America before the pilgrims. This surprised me because I had always been told that the pilgrims where the first people to come to this great nation, other than the native americans of course. I think I will always remember this because I was so shocked to find out that this notion is just a myth used to maintain the reputation of our country's founding to children by omitting the parts of the story which are questionable in the eyes of the masses.

In the past, Americans have struggled with rebuilding the lives of people affected by national disasters, and today we still face some of the same issues. Happiness is one of these issues which was emphasized in the reconstruction of the South after the Civil War. Everyone was unhappy and there was no way to balance everything out to please both races. Whereas today there is still a huge discrepancy when it comes to happiness of United States’ citizens. Everyone wants something different for their county, and it is very difficult for the officials in power to make decisions which are suitable to the majority of their party.

I have really enjoyed these past two quarters, and from what I have learned I think this era can be summed up to “The Age of Evolution” I can not wait to see what is to come next semester.